Bill de Blasio’s stand against Reagan’s contra war on Nicaragua
The would-be New York mayor’s pro-Sandinista activism was in America’s finest tradition. Where’s that political courage now?
Stephen Kinzer
theguardian.com, Wednesday 25 September 2013 08.30 EDT
Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua, 1978 – a year before the leftwing guerrilla movement, formed in 1962, finally ousted the Somoza dictatorship. Photograph: Matthew Naythons/Getty Images
Candidates to run one of the world’s most important cities must address a host of issues. Voters want to know how they will handle problems ranging from subway service to income inequality. Now, a new and fully unexpected question has burst into the race for mayor of New York: what did you do in the cold war?
The Democratic candidate for mayor, Bill de Blasio, worked for a group that opposed the contra war in Nicaragua during the 1980s. This has now become a campaign issue. The Republican candidate, Joseph Lhota, has suggested that De Blasio is a dangerous radical:
In his own words, he called himself a ‘democratic socialist’. It’s really unfortunate that that’s the level that we’ve come to in this city.
Adolfo Carrión, Jr. A complete disgrace to progressive Puerto Rican traditions.
As he was speaking, President Obama endorsed De Blasio and praised his “bold, courageous ideas”.
Mayors of New York are almost automatically national figures. De Blasio is ambitious, progressive, and relatively youthful (at 52). It is natural that Republicans would seek to block the rise of a Democratic candidate in a strongly Democratic-leaning city.
No one imagined, however, that a civil war fought decades ago in Central America would become an issue in this campaign.
During the 1980s, international interest in the Nicaraguan war was intense. No conflict since the Spanish civil war had provoked such passion around the world. It was a classic good-versus-evil war.
There was great debate, however, about which side was good and which evil. The Sandinistas, who seized power in 1979 by overthrowing the American-backed Somoza family dictatorship, were supremely idealistic young people eager to pull their country out of poverty. As their hold on power solidified, it became clear that they were also Marxists whose greatest political hero was Fidel Castro.
[pullquote]Editor’s Note: As seen in the materials reproduced below Bill de Blasio’s rivals in the mayoral race for New York City are now resorting to cynical charges of “communism” to sully his image in the eyes of a public long-conditioned by politicians and the media to view any form of socialism as an unmitigated evil. It’s still too early to tell whether such smears (in the eyes of those who still think being a communist is a terrible thing) will work, but there’s no doubt some will be scared off de Blasio’s fold and his substantial lead may shrink enough to give his vile competition a chance. We can only hope for two things at this point: One, that Bill de Blasio will proudly defend his record and not run from it; we have seen too much of such shameful retreats in the history of US politics. Two, that the voters will give him a substantive victory, showing that the anticommunist trick has finally lost its virulent potency. Its passing from the American mindscape, prefigured in the positive attitudes toward socialism among US youth, is promising. One last thing: We do not share Stephen Kinzer’s typically liberal distaste for Cuba, Fidel Castro or the old Soviet Union, but we do share—and exceed—his disgust with the scoundrel Ronald Reagan, until Obama, one of the biggest phonies in modern US history.—PG
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- Bill De Blasio: He should not run from defending noble principles, or truth. Confronting his enemies is the best policy. Being “shamed” or stigmatized by anticommunist accusations only keeps this old low-down tactic alive.
President Jimmy Carter sought an accommodation with the Sandinista regime. But that policy changed dramatically when Ronald Reagan entered the White House in 1981. Reagan approved a far-reaching operation in which soldiers of Somoza’s defeated national guard were reconstituted as an army of “freedom fighters” and sent to start a war in Nicaragua.
The CIA paid, armed, and directed this anti-Sandinista force, which became known as “the contras”. Castro and his Soviet patrons backed the Sandinistas. Depending on one’s perspective, this war was either about keeping communism out of Central America or resisting imperialist intervention so a miserable country could shape its own destiny.
From my perspective, as chief of the New York Times bureau in Nicaragua during this war, I saw its international dimension every day. President Reagan grotesquely praised the contras as “the moral equivalent of our founding fathers and the brave men and women of the French resistance”. He even portrayed wretched, remote Nicaragua as an imminent threat to the United States:
The Sandinistas are just two day’s drive from Harlingen, Texas.
Republican John Lhota: A dishonorable man endorsed by all major Republicans and rightwing media, as we could expect.
Reagan’s war against the Sandinistas, fought partly with secret funds raised in violation of US law – what was later revealed as Colonel Oliver North’s Iran-Contra scam – outraged millions of Americans. Thousands traveled to Nicaragua to show solidarity. Others worked in the US to oppose the war. De Blasio did both.
That De Blasio directly opposed American foreign policy during a key cold war battle is beyond dispute. There remains, however, much doubt about whether that battle ever should have been fought.
Activists like De Blasio were motivated by idealism. Their anger at Reagan’s policies led many to overlook oppressive aspects of Sandinista rule. Political sophistication was not their strong point, yet they saw violent injustice and sought to oppose it. No impulse is more purely and nobly American.
Republicans are wrong – though, perhaps, politically clever – to accuse De Blasio of supporting Marxist dictatorship. De Blasio has played down the episode, saying only that his life has been devoted to “fighting for equality”. And that may be the politically smart thing for him: since he looks set to be New York’s first Democratic mayor for 20 years, he does not want to be diverted from his focus on local issues and drawn in to defending the specifics of his pro-Nicaragua activism.
Yet, there is something disturbing about his reticence: De Blasio did nothing wrong in Nicaragua. Some would even describe him and other activists of that period as heroic fighters for peace. He should not run away from this aspect of his record, when he might very well say:
Yes, I worked against the contra war and I’m proud to have done so because that war was wrong. Did I turn a blind eye to the excesses of the Sandinistas? Maybe, and I regret that. But I saw poor people being killed and made to suffer because of decisions made in Washington, and I used my rights as an American to oppose that policy in a legal way.
It is never wise to discourage youthful idealism. Nor should former activists shrink from what they did when, in later life, that may seem convenient. Republicans are on the wrong side of history when, implicitly or explicitly, they defend the contras. De Blasio’s reluctance to defend his opposition to the contras places him on the wrong side of courage.
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APPENDIX
September 23, 2013
Mayoral Rivals Attack de Blasio on Past Support of Sandinistas
By THOMAS KAPLAN
Bill de Blasio, on the defensive two weeks after winning the Democratic primary for mayor of New York, found himself on Monday explaining his long-ago support for Nicaragua’s Sandinista party, as two of his opponents expressed alarm about his political worldview.
“It’s pretty obvious we think very, very differently about the way the governments of the world should work,” Joseph J. Lhota, the Republican nominee, said at a news conference, adding: “In his own words, he called himself a ‘democratic socialist.’ It’s really unfortunate that that’s the level that we’ve come to in this city.”
Adolfo Carrión Jr., the Independence Party candidate for mayor, was even more pointed in a statement, accusing Mr. de Blasio of “propping up a brutal dictatorship in Central America,” and asserting that his political philosophy was inspired by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
“New Yorkers are getting a fuller picture of the Democratic Party’s nominee,” Mr. Carrión said, “and it’s a scene right out of ‘Animal Farm.’ ”
The criticism came on a day when the race for mayor took on national and international overtones. Mr. de Blasio was endorsed by President Obama, and the candidates spent an unusual amount of time talking about foreign policy issues — some contemporary, others of cold war vintage — that can be a tripwire for mayoral hopefuls, and mayors, in the city.
Mr. de Blasio came under attack after an article in The New York Times explored his time as a young activist, a period in which he traveled to Nicaragua and developed an admiration for the Nicaraguan revolutionaries.
On Monday morning, Mr. de Blasio, Mr. Lhota and Mr. Carrión attended a news conference organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York to criticize Iran and show support for Israel as world leaders gather for the United Nations General Assembly.
While Mr. Lhota lingered to speak with the news media before leaving, Mr. de Blasio declined to take questions. He led a pack of reporters on a three-block chase through the Tudor City apartment complex, his long strides proving an advantage over those following him. Eager to leave, he at one point almost climbed into the wrong black sport utility vehicle.
Later, at Queens Borough Hall, Mr. de Blasio accepted the endorsement of the county’s Democratic Party, which in the primary had supported one of his rivals, Christine C. Quinn.
Mr. de Blasio declined to discuss the details of his activism, but said at Borough Hall that he was concerned about “the way our country was treating small countries in our hemisphere.”
“Fighting for equality to me — I say this humbly — is my life’s work,” he said. “I’m not surprised that my opponents will throw labels and call names. That’s a Republican tactic, that’s a right-wing tactic. We’ve all seen it plenty of times.”
Mr. de Blasio also sidestepped a question about minutes from a retreat of the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York in 1990 in which Mr. de Blasio was recorded to have expressed his vision of society to be “democratic socialism.”
“That’s not a quote from me; that’s someone’s notes,” Mr. de Blasio said, adding that he had no recollection of expressing that view. (The notes were, in fact, written by him; a copy is kept at the New York University archives and was reviewed by The Times.)
“But it doesn’t matter,” he told reporters. “The bottom line is the values that I have put forward I think have been consistent over the last quarter-century or more. I believe in a more just society. I believe government has to be a tool for a more just society. And I think it’s that simple.”
Earlier in the day, in a statement released by Mr. de Blasio’s campaign, Mr. Obama said Mr. de Blasio’s platform of “progressive change” would make him “a great mayor.” He also cited three of Mr. de Blasio’s top priorities — financing prekindergarten education, making housing more affordable and preserving community hospitals.
“Bill’s agenda for New York is marked by bold, courageous ideas that address the great challenges of our time,” the president said in his statement.
David W. Chen contributed reporting.
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APPENDIX 2
Adolfo Carrión, Jr.
An avatar for opportunistic politics
Carrión, runing as an “Independent” has quickly compiled a certifiable “enemy of the people” dossier, and, as such, he
is a stain on the progressive traditions of the Puerto Rican people. He is even more vociferous than Lhota in denouncing de Blasio’s “anticapitalist” sins. Currently an Obama teammember (which makes it hard to explain why Obama—perhaps taking the longer view or before this wave of accusations surfaced?—endorsed de Blasio), Carrión already has one of the telling signs of being favorably “vetted” as a safe establishment politico, he has in fact received the Kiss of Approval from a prominent ruling class government “advisory” org (see below). Need we say any more?
Aspen Institute
Adolfo Carrión, Jr. was chosen by the Aspen Institute as one of 24 of America’s most promising emerging leaders to be a member of the Aspen-Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership.[17] The fellowship consists of 12 Republicans and 12 Democrats and focuses on the ethics and responsibilities of public office and teaching democratic principles. This is only the second class of fellows from the Institute, and Carrión is the only member from New York.
Readers may recall that American political culture is unique in announcing (in something of a code, but nonetheless openly) who the establishment regards as “suitable leaders” (acceptable to the capitalist class, of course). Major media and institutions, including TIME Magazine, periodically come out with lists of the “100” this or “1000” that people with “leadership” qualities, or some other business-type distinction. “Leadership” is obsessively talked about, and honored in America, a nation that embraces hierarchies while proclaiming to be a classless society. Indeed, no other culture, except America, has ever enshrined the Fuhrerprinzip as mindlessly as Nazi Germany. So accustomed are Americans to such poisonous nonsense, that I’m almost sure that most American “leaders” in the media and politics scarcely realize the totalitarian connotations.—P. Greanville
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